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Social Media at your Fingertips – MyMediaInfo’s January 2010 Release!

The social media has been one of the fastest rising phenomena in the world in the past year. Global time spent on social media sites has inuntitledcreased by 82% every year. In as early as April of 2009, Mashable reported a marked increase in the number of people using Twitter, blogs, and other social media as sources of news. The extent of popularity with the public and effectiveness in communication has rendered the social media as the most pertinent vehicles for public relations.

In keeping with the unprecedented growth of social media in the past year, MyMediaInfo launches the January release of the product which incorporates social media into the PR domain. MyMediaInfo now has a Social Media module, which consists of Twitter accounts, blogs, and forums. Now, a user can gain access to information on more than 20,000 blogs, 5,000+ forums, and more than 35,000 Twitter accounts. The database also has thousands of Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace profiles. In addition to this, it contains Alexa data, RSS feeds, tag information, and other details for all these social media as well as forums.

Apart from the social media feature, MyMediaInfo also has the Campaign Module, which offers you an easy solution for campaign management. This is an entirely new feature that has been added to increase the user-friendly nature of the database. The user can do away with planners and organizers on various platforms to coordinate all PR campaign activities! The MyMediaInfo campaign module allows users to create and maintain their own planner, set up reminders of campaign activities, track activities related to contacts, outlets and edcals, and tag the journalists, Twitters, or newspapers that they need to contact. The module will give alerts and reminders, thus bringing all the PR solutions to one place, where multiple campaigns are managed through one account name. The MyMediaInfo Campaign module assures increased efficiency, maximum reach, and utmost accuracy in your PR activities!

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Post-Recession: Effective PR Tools in a Recovering Economy

recovery1The great recession has come and gone, leaving unemployment, stock market crashes, mountainous losses, and inflation in its wake. Nevertheless, according to an article in Monsters&Critics.com published on 2 December 2009, the Federal Reserve has released a survey which claims that “most parts of the United States have witnessed some improvement in their economies over the last months”.

Although the rest of the economy is still in the process of picking itself up and dusting off the effects of the recession, the PR industry has proved to be pretty resilient throughout the whole ordeal. IsleNews.com carries an article to this effect. Some 2000 Chartered Institute of Public Relations members were surveyed, and the following results were found:

- Many areas of the PR industry have expanded in spite of the recession, with the digital PR sector seeing the greatest growth.

- Around 33% of the consultants have been successful in retaining more than 10 regular clients, and some 60% have added between two and five clients.

- The budgets for Communication in most PR firms have remained stable through the recession.

That the PR industry has emerged relatively unscathed is obvious from the survey. Now that growth is imminent in the global economy, there is more scope for innovation and value-adding techniques that could take your PR company to greater heights. When a PR company is seen as evolving, adapting and innovating in spite of an economy in rebound, the faith of the stakeholders and the public is strengthened.

To keep this confidence alive, a PR company should look for the best PR strategies on offer. Press releases and editorial opportunities take on monumental importance. At the same time, one cannot help but give prime importance to online PR solutions like media and editorial calendar databases, and the all-pervasive social media.

One such source of ideal PR campaign solutions is the MyMediaInfo Media Database. MyMediaInfo already has close to 300,000 editorial opportunities for the year 2010 alone. The database also has close to 200,000 editorial contacts. The resilience mymediainfo-official-logoof the PR industry has spurred us on to refine the media database further to include the Twitter handles and feeds of journalists, enhancements in the profiles and addition of images, and refinements in the Google-like search of the tool. Search suggestions are just one of the additions made to the search feature of the database. Customization options in saved lists and drafts of press releases that have been distributed are some of the new features added to the Autumn release of MyMediaInfo.

With the promise of the ideal PR solution for an exciting campaign, your booming PR practice will more than surpass the recovering economy in flying colors.

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Ghost Twittering - Is it Spooking Your Followers?

President Barack Obama shook the social media world two weeks ago with his confession that he has never used Twitter. Talking to students in China, he said, “I have never used Twitter but I’m an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access”. Suddenly, his heartfelt Twitter reaction to winning the Nobel Peace Prize seemed a heart-wrenching farce to many in the Twitterverse:

Obamas Humbled tweet.

The event has brought two intimidating question to the forefront. One side of the camp asks, “Didn’t we vote for him because he was approachable, sincere, tech-savvy, and down-to-earth? So was it all a lie?” The other side asks, “How can people be so naïve as to assume that busy celebrities, especially the President of the United States, actually post their own tweets?” Dialogues are rife on these issues, but it brings to surface these older, yet very relevant questions:

Do celebrities really hire ghost-twitterers?” Yes, it appears so. There are many famous personalities who have had their tweets posted by another person who is familiar with their sentiments on most things, and is privy to their day-to-day happenings. Apart from President Obama, some well-known celebrities who have ghost-twitterers are 50 Cent, Britney Spears, Shaquille O’Neal, and Guy Kawasaki, and even some CEOs of famous companies, to name a few.

“Isn’t this unethical?” Well, the floor is divided on this one. Some say that it is downright unethical, as the very objective of Twitter is to tell the world what you are doing, thinking, feeling etc. It is unfair to lead people to think they have an online rapport with an individual, when it is really their secretary or some other third person. It is especially unacceptable if a CEO uses a twitter account ostensibly to interact with customers and supporters, but all responses are from third parties. Others, like Guy Kawasaki, claim that ‘content is king’. Good content can be contributed by anyone. The identity of the twitterer makes no difference.

Which leads us to the third question, “Don’t followers deserve a full disclosure?” Why don’t people simply tell the readers that their posts are updated by ghost-twitterers? It would make everything that much more simpler. Guy Kawasaki stands by this notion, as seen in an interview with Dave Fleet on davefleet.com. Britney Spears has two ghost-twitterers as is apparent from some of her tweets labeled “Adam Leber” and “Lauren Kozak”.

Follow that with, “Doesn’t the term ‘Verified Account’ lose some of its meaning now?” Twitter labels the real Twitter accounts of celebrities as “Verified Accounts”. It is taken for granted that the tweets are from the individuals themselves. Followers are as much attracted to the sincerity and reality of the celebrity, as to the rush of rubbing virtual shoulders with a star. When a CEO claims he will answer queries from customers,  people come looking for a response from the man himself, not the customer service desk. In the light of ghost twittering, whether disclosed or otherwise, it all becomes a little pointless.

If we were to now look at things from the PR perspective, the final ‘nail-in-the-coffin’ question is this: “Did people’s trust in high profile twitter users just fall a notch or two?” Will the client ever trust again? Can good PR be done through ghost twitterers and proxies?

What’s your take on this issue?

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Top 10 Must-Reads for the PR Professional!

Here is a list of must-read books for every PR professional. These best-sellers are top of the charts for a reason, which is that they are valuable insights into the PR industry from bloggers, PR pros, industry veterans, social media experts and marketing gurus. If you want to be inspired enough to take your PR practice to the next level, these books will do it for you.

The top 10 books you should read if you are a PR professional are:

1. The New Rules of Marketing & PR: how to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing & online media to reach buyers directly by David Meerman Scott - This book could be just what you are looking for, if you want a fresh perspective on the PR industry, some new ideas on your marketing strategies, and if you have a few questions on internet marketing. This book is now among the top choices in Amazon.com.

2. PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge. This book tells you all you need to know about combining good old-fashioned PR with the speed and effectiveness of social media. Deirdre Breakenridge tells you why you should be on social media, and how to go about it.

3. Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge. This book comes at a time when the PR industry has all but forgotten the very purpose for which it exists - the public. The authors remind us that good relations and sincerity never went out of fashion, after all.

4. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. Written by two of the most reputed experts in the social media and PR industry, this book tells you how you can build trust for your product and company using the social media. It contains real-life examples and input from hands-on experiences of the authors.

5. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. If you are still grappling with the nuances of social media and modern technologies, then it doesn’t hurt to read one more book on it. This book deals with the concept of ‘groundswell’ in particular, and why your business should take advantage of it.

6. Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz and Guy Kawasaki. Word-of-mouth is the best PR that money can’t buy, and this book talks about how you can make people sit up and take notice of your name, company, cause or product long enough to tell other people about it. A great guide to goodwill creation, this book is also one of the most popular on Amazon.com.

7. The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media by Paul Chaney. The title is self-explanatory, and so is the book. Though this book is also on internet marketing, it comes from the viewpoint of a leading expert on blogging who is also known as The Blog Coach.

8. Public Relations Writing Worktext: A Practical Guide for the Profession by Joseph Zappala and Ann R. Carden. This is a down-to-basics book, which stays true to its claim of being a ‘practical guide’ to public relations. The book gives special emphasis to coordinating public relations with HR, marketing, legal councel, finance, operations etc.

9. Press Releases are Not a PR Strategy: An Executive’s Guide to Public Relations by Linda B. Vandevrede. Vandevrede uses 25 years of experience in the marketing and PR field to break numerous Pr misconceptions and reveals that PR is something that something more than simply sending out tons of emails and waiting for responses.

10. Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR by Jennifer Gehrt and Colleen Moffitt. In this book, the authors describe how to use PR to its fullest potential with 10 Tips that every PR professional needs to know. All the lessons have been derived from strategies that the authors themselves have successfully tried in their professions.

Since no post on PR and Social Media can go without a mention of Seth Godin, here is one of his books for good measure!:

11. Small is the New Big: and 183 other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin. This book combines all the words of wisdom that Godin has given readers through his blog. Written in his trademark style, the book will show you how to let a great idea take shape in a natural way. He says, “If your idea is great, people will find you”.

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MyMediaInfo’s Autumn MakeOver!!

The success of MyMediaInfo is based as much on customer feedback and suggestions, as it is on research and innovation. Regular suggestions from our clients have led to the addition of the many features that make the product one of the best in the PR industry.

This Fall, MyMediaInfo gives you its updated version, with up to 70 new features added. The new features range from tweets of journalists, upgrades to the search engine, to photos of journalists. This is an excerpt from the press release in pitchengine.com:

“We pride ourselves on being responsive to our clients”, stated Eric Hill, President of MyMediainfo. “The majority of these upgrades came from suggestions that our clients and prospects have made to us over the past year. We are very happy to announce that all of these upgrades will simply be value added features to our already popular Enterprise package, and not an a la carte fee for our existing or new clients.”

Our booth, PRSA 2008 Conf.

If you are interested in finding out more about the MyMediaInfo media contacts and editorial calendar database, visit the MyMediaInfo booth at the PRSA 2009 International Conference at San Diego, CA. Follow our Twitter updates @mymediainfo and @ehill2. You can also tweet to us on any inquiries you have about our product.

See you at the PRSA Conference!